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Build a Perfect Mac for less than $250

MrFlooD

By MrFlooD,
in Tutorials (The Genius Bar)

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ElementalMac
ElementalMac
Posted
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Hello,

 

I am considering building a setup as descibed in this thread. I would like to know how well xcode runs with the hardware/software setup. Is it useable etc?

 

thanks

c

 

 

While I haven't tried it on my $250 Mac, I have tried it on an AMD-based Hackintosh laptop (a lot more incompatible than this build) and it works fine. I think the most current iPhone SDK requires 10.5.5. I don't think you'll have much problem if you're at 10.5.5 or higher.

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H8TR
H8TR
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So I just did the Boot 132 install using a retail 10.5.6 disc and there is nothing to convince me that it is any better than an iPC 10.5.6 install. iPC 10.5.6 is just as "vanilla" as a boot 132 install. Plus the boot 132 install take a little longer to complete and has more steps.

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H8TR
H8TR
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Well, for one, I can't do it as the optical drive in my D945GCLF2 hackintosh has no means of ejecting the boot132 cd in order to insert my retail DVD.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26029?viewlocale=en_US

Any suggestions?

Use either a External DVD drive or create a USB boot 132 drive. If using a USB boot 132 drive (which is the easiest method), just boot from the USB drive, insert Mac OS X install disc. At this point, I guess you can't get the disc out until you complete the install to the desktop. Finish the installation and boot from Flash drive again to boot into your installation. You should now be able to eject the disc.

 

One quick note, after doing the boot 132 install, my ethernet now seems to work after sleeping. It takes a few seconds to become active, but it does work.

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scram69
scram69
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Use either a External DVD drive or create a USB boot 132 drive. If using a USB boot 132 drive (which is the easiest method), just boot from the USB drive

I've tried booting from USB with the boot132 iso with this board. All I get is a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. Do you know if there is a special bios setting I need? Boot from USB is enabled...

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H8TR
H8TR
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I've tried booting from USB with the boot132 iso with this board. All I get is a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. Do you know if there is a special bios setting I need? Boot from USB is enabled...
I was about to ask what motherboard are you using but totally forgot that we all have the same motherboard lol. Be sure to have booting from USB enabled and have the USB as the first boot option. I think that should work.
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Michel2198
Michel2198
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Hi guys....i have a little problem i got all my hardware putted together i was able to install kalyway 10.5.2 then i updated to 10.5.5, my problem is the computer wont boot from my hard drive, i need to keep the installation cd in the drive in order for osx to boot up. i tried to rearrange the boot order but it didn't seem to do much.

 

my config is as follows:

 

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-5400C4

 

Intel BOXD945GCLF Intel Atom processor 230 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

 

APEX MI-100 Black / Silver Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply

 

please help T_T, and thanks in advance.

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mattrb
mattrb
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So I just did the Boot 132 install using a retail 10.5.6 disc and there is nothing to convince me that it is any better than an iPC 10.5.6 install. iPC 10.5.6 is just as "vanilla" as a boot 132 install. Plus the boot 132 install take a little longer to complete and has more steps.

 

You wont be saying that when 10.5.7 comes out and borks your iPC

 

Retail is better.... EFI Partition Boot is bestest.......

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H8TR
H8TR
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Hi guys....i have a little problem i got all my hardware putted together i was able to install kalyway 10.5.2 then i updated to 10.5.5, my problem is the computer wont boot from my hard drive, i need to keep the installation cd in the drive in order for osx to boot up. i tried to rearrange the boot order but it didn't seem to do much.

 

my config is as follows:

 

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-5400C4

 

Intel BOXD945GCLF Intel Atom processor 230 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

 

APEX MI-100 Black / Silver Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply

 

please help T_T, and thanks in advance.

This is what you need to do. Install PC EFI v9 Chameleon 1.0.12. Get it Here.

 

Open up Terminal and type (without quotations) "diskutil list"

 

You end up getting a list of your disks. Your looking for the disk that has your Mac OS X install on it. In most cases it'll be something like disk0s2 if its on the first hard drive.

 

then type "sudo -s". Enter your password. (It wont show up, not even the little stars, thats okay), press enter

 

Now type "fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX" Replace the X with your disk number. For example in disk0s2, that would be the zero (0), press enter

 

Now type "flag Y" Replace the Y with the partition number. For example in disk0s2, that would be the two (2), press enter

 

Type "write". It should tell you device could not be accessed exclusively. A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n]

 

Type "y"

 

Type "quit"

 

Close Terminal and restart your machine. It should now boot without the Kalyway disc.

 

 

You wont be saying that when 10.5.7 comes out and borks your iPC

 

Retail is better.... EFI Partition Boot is bestest.......

I'm running 10.5.6 Retail right now. I'm just saying ATM, I can't really see where the differences lie when it comes to what different between the retail and an iPC 10.5.6.

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Magimog
Magimog
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This is really strange, I got Kalyway 10.5.2 to install by the guide bit for bit (I have the exact hardware specified in original post) and now I can only boot by typing -x at the Darwin prompt. Otherwise I get a "restart your computer error." How do I get around this?

 

I have done this install before but I don't believe I've ran into this issue before... can anyone help?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Dr. Jibe
Dr. Jibe
Posted
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Hi, I built this (well, built is a little much said: currently the mobo is sitting in a fruit cardboard box on top of an old ATX power supply) using boot-132 method and apart from sound I got it working. Well, sleep doesn't really work. If I try to put it to sleep, the hd powers spins down and the mouse pointer disappears. If I then move the mouse you can hear the hd spin up again.

Is there a way to get it properly into sleep?

Restart works find but shut down doesn't. When I try to shutdown it gives me a kernel panic. Any idea where to look for?

Thanks!

jibe

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geefer
geefer
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The problem with using these distros over a retail install is that when an official apple update comes along (to 10.5.7 say), then you have to sit there and wait until the distro is updated or do messy patching to get up to date. Retail installations allow you to use system update and replace a driver or two and you're done.

 

There are instructions out there for both the D945GCLF and the D945GCLF2 for real retail installs. I don't know why people don't do it.

 

Where can I find these? I just burned a 10.5.6 retail and can't even get it to boot for some reason, but it's read on my Mac when I boot into it.

 

I'm at 10.5.6 using Kalyway and Biketown (which I thought I did wrong but it boots to desktop without any problems) but things like internet and sound don't work.

 

I'd like to bust it all down and start over again using just the cleanest and best way...what would that be? I literally have the exact parts as listed in the OP, no dual core, just single.

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conlan
conlan
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Thanks to iSynapse and his work on the D94GCLF2 board. I managed to get Retail Leopard running on the D94GCLF board. Here is the link to my version of the driver pack, tested and updated(downgraded?) to work with the D94GCLF instead of the D94GCLF2. Hope it helps someone.

 

Hope this helps, geefer.

Dr. Jibe about boot 132 and sleep and shutdown. I have never used sleep as I use my "mac mini" as a itunes, file and torrent server. Wish I could help.

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ralphultra
ralphultra
Posted
Posted

I have the D945GCNL it's the same MB in a MATX form factor with the ability to use Dual Core or Core2Duo processors. I had no problems geting the iATKOS 5i to work and bump it to 10.5.6 using the Apple Update. This would probably work with the Atom version also.

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Dr. Jibe
Dr. Jibe
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Restart works find but shut down doesn't. When I try to shutdown it gives me a kernel panic. Any idea where to look for?

After I cloned the HD (I started with a larger one and now as it's running so well, it's going to become my father-in-law's hackint0sh) shutdown works ... ;)

But I cannot get audio to work nor sleep.

Regards,

jibe

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geefer
geefer
Posted
Posted
Hope this helps, geefer.

Dr. Jibe about boot 132 and sleep and shutdown. I have never used sleep as I use my "mac mini" as a itunes, file and torrent server. Wish I could help.

 

 

I have the D945GCNL it's the same MB in a MATX form factor with the ability to use Dual Core or Core2Duo processors. I had no problems geting the iATKOS 5i to work and bump it to 10.5.6 using the Apple Update. This would probably work with the Atom version also.

 

Thanks for both of your replies guys.

 

To Conlan:

 

Yes, thank you for making a repository for all the necessary files needed for an installation, but while the installer finishes for the ethernet, it still wont work. This might be because I upgraded to 10.5.6 some weird way and might have done something wrong on my end.

 

Which leads me to Ralphultra:

 

I see you suggesting iATKOS. If I do choose this one, what settings do I need to check off when installing? Why this one over iPC? I've been hearing really good things about that plus you can get it in 10.5.6 . On the other hand, why not the retail disc? Which one if the definitive one for our build?

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scram69
scram69
Posted
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I was about to ask what motherboard are you using but totally forgot that we all have the same motherboard lol. Be sure to have booting from USB enabled and have the USB as the first boot option. I think that should work.

After a few weeks off to allow the frustration to fade, I'm trying again to use boot132 via USB on this board (I have the D945GCLF2). I have two options:

1) external usb cd/rw - board will not even post with this drive connected. Can't even get to the bios until I unplug the drive. Drive works fine on other machines.

 

2)usb thumb drive - I followed the instructions here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...15064&st=20

to create the boot132 thumb drive, using the files from iSynaps' boot132.iso for this board. The bios sees the flash drive, and I set it to be the first boot device. This drive actually works on my other ECS-based hackintosh. However, for the D945GCLF2, all I get is "Boot error".

 

Has anyone actually successfully accomplished boot132 via usb stick for this board?

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odisea
odisea
Posted
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Another happy customer, everything running smooth, went from 10.5.2 to 5.6 via bike town method. After doing it apple updates installed and still have no bugs or errors.

 

I´ll update all my settings later because video gets jumpy, and I think it may be the ram memory.

 

 

Also I want to show my setup :(

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simsim
simsim
Posted
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@scram69

 

What did you set "USB Mass Storage Emulation Type" to?

For me, booting from usb stick didn't work until I choose "All Fixed Disc"

 

 

edit: I've got BIOS version 099 and I noticed now that the release notes for the newer BIOS 0122 has a fix

called "Fixed an issue where USB drives are not bootable." Maybe thats it.

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scram69
scram69
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@scram69

 

What did you set "USB Mass Storage Emulation Type" to?

For me, booting from usb stick didn't work until I choose "All Fixed Disc"

I was deeply suspicious that there was some secret BIOS setting that I was missing in order to boot from USB with this board - if only I could get someone to tell me what it was. My suspicions have been confirmed...

 

Thanks - "All Fixed Disk" did the trick!

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mike34341
mike34341
Posted
Posted

Hello,

 

I just put together a system around this board and got 10.5.2 installed off the Kalyway disc. Currently I am at the point right after getting the system installed exactly as described in the first post. The machine runs fine, but I can't get it updated and I'm stuck at 1024x768.

 

Biketown's site mentions nothing about a 10.5.5 pre/post updater, and the link to download the GMA 950 driver does nothing but take me to the InsanelyMac homepage. Is there somewhere else I should be looking to get ahold of these files? Personally I don't care too much about updating from 10.5.2 to 10.5.5 but I definately want to get the video working properly.

 

Thanks,

Mike

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